Virginia Garnishment: What you need to know

A garnishment is an order of a court to an employer to withhold a sum of money from the earnings of an employee (the debtor or obligor) for payment of a court- or agency-ordered debt. There are numerous state and federal laws pertaining to the procedure. Where state law is more restrictive than federal law, state law will govern.

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Garnishments vs. assignment of wages. Garnishment and assignment of wages are both methods of deducting money from an employee's salary to repay his or her debts. Assignment is generally voluntary, garnishment generally court ordered. There is additional information on assignments of wages.

Respond promptly. An employer that is served with a wage garnishment must respond promptly to the notice and any other court papers regarding garnishment. Employers failing to respond to a notice or in any way ignore a garnishment run the very real risk of being held personally liable for the entire judgment.

The federal Family Support Enforcement Act (42 USC 666et seq.) authorizes states to pass their own implementing legislation to ensure collection of family support; states that do not do so lose federal subsidies. Virginia's child support statute is VA Code Sec. 20-79.1et seq.

Procedure. A mandatory withholding order is sent to the employer when child support obligations are one month in arrears. The employer must begin to withhold the support amount immediately and send child support payments to the creditor on the employee's pay date or, if sent via Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), within four days of the pay date. If the employee leaves the job, the employer must notify the court clerk within 10 days.

Record retention is complex and time consuming. However, in addition to complying with various federal and state laws, keeping good, well-organized records can be very helpful in documenting and supporting an organization’s employment actions.
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This special report will discuss how you can ensure your records are in good order, and establish a record-retention policy.